Product Channel Manager - eCommerce Search & Discovery

We are looking for a Product Channel Manager to join our eCommerce Development team here at NEXT! Based onsite at NEXT Head Office in Enderby, Leicestershire with great benefits!

The Role:

At NEXT, search and product discovery are becoming one of our most strategically important areas of eCommerce. As customer behaviour evolves beyond traditional browse journeys into AI-assisted and conversational experiences, we are investing heavily in how customers find products across our digital platforms.  

We are looking for a Product Channel Manager (Search & Discovery) to lead the customer facing experience across Search, Product Listing Pages (PLPs), filtering, sorting, navigation and emerging AI journeys.  

This high impact role sits within our eCommerce Product team, driving experiences for millions of customers across NEXT and Total Platform brands. While our Data Science and Search teams focus on algorithms, ranking and relevance, you will translate that technical strategy into scalable customer experiences, robust product capabilities and high quality technology delivery.

What You’ll Take On: 

Product Ownership & Delivery

• Own the web and app roadmap, backlog and delivery, balancing customer value, commercial impact and technical complexity.  
• Partner with UX and data teams to specify, test, launch and continuously optimise search features.  

Search & Discovery Experience  

• Lead core customer touchpoints across web and app, including Search Results, PLPs, filtering, sorting and navigation UI/UX.  
• Drive the transition from traditional keyword search toward next-generation AI and conversational discovery.  

Operational Management  

• Monitor platform KPIs and customer behavior to identify optimisation opportunities and resolve live performance issues.  
• Ensure search capabilities remain performant, stable, and commercially effective during peak trading periods.  

Vendor & Platform Management  

• Manage relationships with existing and emerging Search & Discovery technology partners.  
• Lead vendor evaluations, POCs and testing to assess platform scalability, cost and technical capabilities.  

Collaboration & Stakeholder Management  

• Partner with teams across Data Engineering, Data Science, UX, Trading, Web Analytics and International teams.  
• Build strong alignment with Senior Digital Leadership around strategic priorities and delivery plans.

What You’ll Bring:

You are an experienced and proven digital product leader with a strong understanding of eCommerce discovery experiences and customer journeys.

You are commercially minded, highly collaborative and comfortable operating in a fast moving, high scale eCommerce environment.

You combine strategic thinking with hands on delivery capability and enjoy working closely with engineering and cross-functional teams to turn ideas into customer facing products.

You are excited by the future of AI-assisted commerce, conversational interfaces and the evolution of product discovery beyond traditional browse and search journeys.

Essential Skills:

• Proven track record in Digital Product Management, leading complex backlogs and agile deliveries within high scale eCommerce, retail or marketplace environments.
• Deep technical knowledge of search and discovery domains, including PLPs, navigation, filtering, search merchandising, semantic search and AI/conversational journeys.
• Hands on experience with third party search, personalisation, or experimentation platforms (e.g., Bloomreach, Algolia, Coveo, Constructor) alongside strong A/B testing capability.
• Strong commercial acumen and data driven decision-making, using web analytics and search performance data to maximise business impact.
• Exceptional stakeholder management skills, comfortably bridging the gap between engineering, UX, data science, trading, and senior leadership.
• Proven strategic leadership experience. Confident in setting product vision, influencing senior executive stakeholders and driving business wide change across digital platforms.